2. analog
  3. 194290-5063

How much do I need to spend to make vinyl sound better than digital?

All,

I have a solid vinyl setup that I like to think of as entry-level “plus:” Project Debut Pro with Sumiko Moonstone cartridge.  I enjoy vinyl for the ritual but find that my digital gear - a $400 ifi streamer and the AKM DAC built into my Anthem preamp - beats the analog rig in most ways.  Far better imaging/soundstage and much tighter bass without the occasional distortion/sibilance/warbling of the vinyl rig.  I haven’t messed with cartridge setup other than to check the factory-performed alignment, which looks perfect.  The table is perfectly balanced, counterweight set correctly with an electronic scale, etc - so I have no reason to think there’s a setup problem.  
 

Is this par for the course for this level of vinyl gear?  What do I need to spend to get my vinyl gear to match the performance of decent digital?  I’m thinking of upgrading to a Clearaudio Concept, perhaps with a Hana SL cartridge, but I want to make sure doing that is going to deliver a fundamentally different experience than what I have right now with the Project/Sumiko combination.

 

No interest in flame wars or rehashing the vinyl/digital debate.  I know vinyl can sound wonderful and am simply trying to decide whether I can afford the price of entry for a system that can gets the basics right (no audible distortion/sibilance, decent imaging).  I thought the Project/Sumiko would have gotten me there, but for whatever reason it hasn’t fit the bill.Thanks for any insights. 

lousyreeds1
ghdprentice
7,686 posts
 

Typically, these days you can equal things by carefully choosing and investing about the same amount as your analog rig. For me my digital and analog sound simply stunning and the same... as I desired. You can see my systems under my userID.

For systems that are more budget oriented, sometimes you may need to spend a little more on digital... say maybe up to 20%. But this is changing rapidly. 

So roughly: Turntable + Phonostage = Streamer + DAC. 

You have to put the same effort you would into choosing a TT, cartridge and phonostage into the Streamer and DAC. My rough rule of thumb for a digital system is 30% speakers, 15% amp, 15% preamp, 15% DAC, and 15% streamer, 10% cables and interconnects. Really generally. Same for analog 15% TT and 15% phonostage. 

ntpc4
10 posts
 

It can't be done. You could spend $100K on the most esoteric turntable, cartridge, tonearm, base, cables, and phono stage, and its potential sound quality will never equal that of spending $10K on a network player/streamer and DAC. It just is what it is.

inna
7,923 posts
 

Phono stage is extremely important.

Some Japanese CDs do sound relatively good, and my old CEC TL5100Z player is not too bad, but vinyl always sounds better with Nottingham table, often much better.

 

sns
3,687 posts
 

I no longer see the point of bothering with vinyl unless you have the funds to go first class with both vinyl and digital. A first class digital setup will not have you longing for vinyl so why bother. Now I can see going for the vinyl assuming one has both the funds and a large vinyl collection. I have around $25k in my vinyl setup, over 3k albums and rarely play vinyl.

dwette
282 posts
 

ONE. MILLION. DOLLARS.

Seriously though. Despite what @ntpc4 claims (and baseless generalizations like that suck anyway), my $60K analog front end still completely smokes my $16K network streamer every day of the week. It’s not even close. :)

Vinyl sounds so good on my system I rarely even bother with digital, unless I want to audition some music I might buy on vinyl, or I want to play music that was recorded digitally in the first place. Vinyl for me is just about always more satisfying for listening to music. But I've been doing it for a long time, and have some 5000+ LPs.

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